Later this week, Geralt makes his Netflix debut in The Witcher. If you've previously played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on the Switch or another platform, we're guessing you're at least curious to see what his new web television series is like.
Although it's already been stated how the series will draw on Andrzej Sapkowski's best-selling fantasy novels, rather than CD Projekt Red's popular video game series, in a recent interview with Inverse, the showrunner Lauren Hissrich doubled-down on this. Here's what she said when asked if there was a chance of stories from the video games being adapted:
We’re going to stick to the book for a few reasons. One, the games are amazing, but they’re also an adaptation of the books. That would be an adaptation of an adaptation. Two, I don’t think the TV show in any way needs to compete with the games. They can stand on their own. The games have a ton of fans, what we’re doing doesn’t impact the games, at all. The games can keep going with their storytelling and we can keep going with ours and we can live in the same universe really happily.
According to Hissrich, there's no need for the two to compete, and both series can "happily" co-exist within the Witcher universe alongside the book. The Witcher Netflix series launches on 20th December and has already secured a second season.
Will you be watching this new Netflix show later this week? Comment down below.
[source usgamer.net]
Comments 19
That makes sense, I don't see a real problem.
....This was already known
The series showrunner has stated on multiple occassions that it's based strictly on the original novels. Also why are you reporting on this if it has nothing to do with the games?
@BlueBlur101 I guess for the few people who didn't know already. I think most fans have known for ages though.
Ok on one hand, this is good news as its sticking purely to the source material. But on the other, its never bad to look at separate adaptation and take notes on what it had improved upon. An example of this is the Dragonball Super Broly movie during the Bardock story. Toriyama didn't make the Bardock special, so for years it was non-canon. Toriyama then went on to make Dragonball Minus, however it didn't focus on Bardock and fans didn't like the alterations made. Then when it came to making the Broly movie, Toriyama wanted to bring his Dragonball Minus story to the big screen however he kept the feedback about Dragonball Minus in mind so he looked at the Bardock special and took more inspiration from that. And, for the most part, him taking inspiration from the Bardock special improved upon aspects of the Dragonball Minus Story. The same could apply here, where they could look at the games and see how they improved upon the story. Perhaps then creating a story that perfectly balances the source material, and the changes the games made that improved upon it. Making a perfectly balanced show.
...adaptionception.
Yep, knew this and probably the right choice. No use telling the same story twice.
That's a shame. The Red Baron arc was the best part of the entire game, and I wish it were adapted.
Best decision 👌
Works sometimes, not so much with the way Resident Evil went, though. After number 3 it was just tired and the games did better, even if they did genre swap to action horror.
Seems a bit short sighted to me. I would expect that the Witcher fanbase will primarily come from the games. I am a fan because of the games and whilst I am an avid reader I haven't to date read the books.
On the flipside they are being honest to the source material but I can imagine some fans will be put off.
My biggest gripe...where is the second sword!!!
I am however, looking forward to the series and excited to see the direction it will take. I'll probably read the books as well.
@Rpg-lover Fan of the books I take?
@Aerona You beat me to it.
I am looking forward to seeing what this is like. Henry Cavil (not much of a Cavil fan) put me off to begin with but so far in the clips I have felt he’s done a good job with the voice so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
But the games aren't an adaptation of the books. The games are all set after the books, as an unofficial sequel. A lot of people seem to make that mistake, thinking the games retell the stories from the books. That leads to complaints like " Geralt and Yenn are too young in the TV series" even though there's about a 20 year gap.
@Dethmunk Now that is interesting! I hadn't noticed that...goes back to watch the trailer again!!
@Belatarr I see you have mentioned the other casting, I know I had my reservations when I saw some of them. I will give it a go though I should have a good idea of how I feel after the first episode
@Matroska only good comment in here. Thanks for pointing this out. Who knows, if the show is going well for many seasons and Sapkowski doesn't release a sequel in time (like George RR Martin) they might turn to the games or make up their own stuff. I sure hope this will be a success.
@Matroska Just for the record, by unofficial you do mean noncanon, right? They did get permission from the book's author to make the games, didn't they?
@Matroska Wasn't the first Witcher and part of Assassins of Kings a book adaptation tho? I know Wild Hunt had a completely original story
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